Posts Tagged ‘strange projects’

In case you’re confused by how to find your way around in BRD, I’ve compiled a flowchart to help guide the way. It shows routes, how to get the key, and bosses along the way. I like the chart on wowwiki, but I’m a more pictures-visual person.

In case you wanted more information, the pdf version – Giant BRD flowchart – has links to bosses/quests, and better resolution, unlike the jpeg below.

Yellow arrows are optional bosses.

Blue, the path to get a key.

Green, the path with a key.

Pink, once you’ve opened the lock.

I’ll make two notes that I couldn’t fit in the chart – (1) once you have the key, its smart to open the gates, so that new members can continue, without following a strange path to find you. (2) If you’re tanking, or sure that you have a good tank, and want the key – on zoning in: go straight, do an immediate u-turn, and then go up the Dark Iron highway. That’ll lead to Incendius, and you can do the key route in reverse. The hazard of this route is that the highway and upper arena will have large groups of adds to be tanked. That can wreck some tanks.

Let me know if I missed anything / if it can be improved upon!

*Disclaimer: I left the lava “shortcut” off intentionally. Because its just cruel to tempt lvl 50-somethings with a speedy run, when it’ll just lead to certain doom.

In the process of collecting data on the performance of characters in lvl 80 heroics, I’ve discovered something truly absurd: I genuinely love tanking pugs. More than raiding, more than getting insane gear for my cat druid (ok, Deathbringer’s Will is ridiculous. proc + flightform = beautiful visual)… I just love tanking pugs.

So I decided to level a warrior (the tank class I’m missing) to 80, using LFD, playing as a tank.

Like the title says, I’m a spaz.

But its ridiculously fun.

I can tune the difficulty of the instance to match the group / my mood. With a weaker healer and dps, I can opt to pull one group, and focus on bringing each pull down cleanly. Perfect for when my attention is mostly elsewhere. Or, if the healer is up for it – I can grab everything in SM Library up to Houndmaster Loksey in 2 pulls, or let the runners in Cathedral pull the main room for us in a neverending deathfest. Even though I’m twinked, these are great learning experiences for managing cooldowns and keeping aggro on 20+ creatures at once.

I’m truly the leader. In most cases, the group is completely dependent on the tank’s sense of direction. Some of these instances (hello Wailing Caverns) are absurdly non-linear. BRD has its own flowchart. In my first Uldaman, someone needed Grimlok, and I had to draw on 4-year-old memories to find him. Fortunately, I’m fond enough of the instance that the memories were still there… but there is something quite thrilling about being in charge. Just hope I remember all the turns in ST.

Twinking is for pve. The bonus bags, heirlooms, and better enchants are game-changers for lower-level instancing. At the moment, I’m rocking 2.5k hp at 38 – more than my rogue had at 60 (but less than my twinked 28 bear druid). I do absurd amounts of damage. Out of the 51 runs I’ve done, only one dps – a mage – has outdone me in overall damage done. I also seem to be virtually-indestructible. I can handle pulls without a healer.

“Virtually” isn’t quite right. I’ve died 5 times. 3 of these deaths were in Gnomer – in each case, someone pulled a terrifyingly large wall of mobs – like, Genghis Khan would be impressed by the force amassed against us. This happened either by not dismissing a pet on the jump down to Fallout (trog zerg > me), or twice on the way to Thermaplug (robot zerg > me). These reduce me to laughter, so I’m pretty happy with it… the other two were from a healer that disconnected on a giant pull of insanity, and another from a healer that didn’t realize I had a ticking disease, no hp, and had run out of food.

So nobody’s perfect – thats what my no-death character is for.

I’ve definitely seen a fair bit of crazy from lower-level players. Ret paladins seem to be particularly fond of taunting to do damage. I had a strange warlock who insisted on pulling for me. A rogue that randomly jumped into groups… not groups I was near, not groups on the path, just pulls nowhere by us. He’d die, we’d finish the pull, res – and then start the cycle again.

Again, still on the funny end of the spectrum. Hopefully I can keep the good grouping luck going.

I’m really excited by this + the next band of instances. SM Cath and Uldaman have always been among my favorite instances. I think I screenshot Archaedas every time I’m there. ZF was always a fond source of memories. I’m slightly apprehensive of Mara – but I’ve never tried it twinked, so it could be a completely different – and much more fun – instance.

Oh! And – thank you google reader – I’m really psyched to see that Pugging Pally is leveling via healing dungeons. Its really interesting to read from another point of view – and I’m glad that SM Graveyard syndrome is a shared experience. The only thing that kept me going was the hope of a rare spawn, just for the novelty… and even then, I only saw Ironspine.

Whats in this blog?

Descriptions of random ideas / projects in WoW.

Data-driven examinations of popular WoW myths.

Whatever else comes to my increasingly random mind.

Hopefully that excites someone out there in the interwebbed pipe-system thingy. Or at least I can keep this stuff organized… my brains get scrambled with all this stuff hopping around – it is worse than keeping track of my cat druid’s dps rotations.